Soft Skills and Hard Skills that Personal Support Workers Need to Have

When considering a career in the healthcare field you need not just your basic qualifications but you need another set of skills.  You will need what we call soft skills and hard skills.  In this article we are going to focus on the soft and hard skills needed to become an effective personal support worker.

Soft Skills

These are skills that allow a personal support worker to do their job effectively.  Without soft skills a nursing assistant is not able to convey the impression of compassion to their clients/patients.   Simply put, a personal support worker without soft skills will not be very effective.  Here are some of the soft skills required:

Empathy/Compassion.  Every personal support worker gets frustrated with their patients; however it is important to remember that your patients are just as frustrated as you are.  Remember, your patients are feeling vulnerable and frustrated due to their conditions and the fact that they are relying on you.  Put yourself in their shoes and your frustration, while not going away completely, will recede a bit.

Time Management Skills.  Typically a personal support worker does an 8 hour shift and handles 8-10 patients.  Each patient typically has their4 own unique needs and as a result you cannot simply divide your time equally among them.  As you get to know your patients and their needs you develop a natural timeline for your shift, and you will include your breaks and lunches in this timeline.

Patience.  Personal support workers must have patience to do their jobs.  As we said earlier in the empathy section, sometimes you need to put yourself in your patient’s shoes and then you will have the patience to deal with their resistance to what must be done. 

Ability to Work in a Team.  Personal support workers typically work in teams.  This means teamwork and communication about patient needs and issues is a must.

Hard Skills.

These are the skills needed for a personal support worker to be able to do their jobs.  Specifically we are talking about the physical requirements needed in moving patients with little or no mobility.  A personal support worker needs to know how to pivot or spin a patient with little mobility to move them from a bed to a chair.  Also, a personal support worker needs to know how to use the Hoyer Lift, to move a patient from a bed to a chair, and the Sit-to-Stand Lift to help patients move from sitting to standing.

These soft and hard skills are essential for anyone who wants to become a personal support worker.

Personal Support Worker - Actual Interview Questions

By Cynthia Herron

After recently completing a personal support worker job interview, one of our writers was kind enough to share some of the questions that were ‘fired’ their way during the interview process.

Practice and formulate your own answers for these questions (and any other questions that you can think of) before any job interview in this field. In-fact, it would be recommended to ask yourself these questions about an employer before applying, putting some of the answers into your cover letter and listing some of the important qualifications, attributes and skills within your resume.

Onto the questions (listed in random order):

Where do you see yourself in five years?

What are your strengths, weaknesses, attributes?

What is your definition of on the job confidentiality? (regarding clients, workplace situations, etc)

The answers to procedural questions (how to fill out an incident report, operating lifts, wheelchair vans or any other employer specific duties and tasks)

How did you find out about this company?

Explain a difficult situation with a co-worker. How did you solve it?

What are your accreditations, achievements, certifications, etc? (where you went to school, first-aid, cpr, and any other relevant info)

Why are you the right person for this position?

Why did you choose to become a personal support worker?

If you could improve one thing about yourself (on the job related), what would it be?

Are you able to work by yourself and within a team environment?

If you witness client abuse while on the job, what is the first thing that you do?

PSW’s Need Dementia Specific Training

The role of a Personal Support Worker within the healthcare system has evolved significantly.  The services they provide have become very diverse.  As a result, continuous training and education for Personal Support Workers has become paramount.  One area which tends to be overlooked when it comes to training is the area of Personal Support Worker dealing with patients in various stages of dementia.

Dementia is an often misunderstood disease that primarily affects the elderly.  Because many front line workers such as Personal Support Workers and Nursing Assistants are not specifically trained to deal with the requirements and needs of patients with dementia, they tend to infantilize them, which lead to the exacerbation of the indignity patients suffering from dementia feel.

Seeing the need for dementia specific training for front line workers in Ontario, the Alzheimer’s Society of Toronto developed specific training modules that they offer to front line workers.  These courses are taught in Toronto and offer Certification in Dementia Specific Services.  For more information about these courses you can contact the Alzheimer’s Society at 416-322-6560, or click here to register.

The reality is that 1 in 6 seniors in Canada suffer some form of dementia, and a properly trained front line is essential to provide them services.